President Barack Obama shakes hands with Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., after being sworn in as the 44th president in 2009. Rush beat Obama in the Democratic primary for a House seat in 2000. (CQ Roll Call file photo)

The only politician to ever defeat Barack Obama in an election introduced a bill to designate the portion of Interstate Route 57 as “Barack Obama Highway.”

Illinois Democrat Rep. Bobby Rush said his move is in part a response to President Donald Trump.

An underground cavern at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s Weeks Island storage site in Louisiana. (Courtesy Department of Energy)

A bill that would allow the federal government to rent out space in the caves holding the nation’s emergency oil stockpile moved out of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee last week with bipartisan support.

The legislation was advanced Thursday by the Energy Subcommittee in a voice vote and without any amendments. The bill would authorize the Energy Department to enter into lease agreements with private companies or foreign governments to store petroleum products in the excess space of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that will result from congressionally mandated drawdowns set to occur over the next decade.

Sen. Doug Jones introduced a new bill Tuesday to create a panel to systematically review, declassify, and release government documents and information related to unsolved criminal civil rights cases from decades ago.

Executive branch officials process Freedom of Information Act requests to see documents related to such cases too slowly, Jones’ office argued in a news release Tuesday, and the scope of what they hand over when they finally do can often be too narrow.

Illinois Rep. Bobby L. Rush is alleged to have accepted free office space in Chicago over the course of two decades, a House Ethics inquiry found. (Scott J. Ferrell/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The House Ethics Committee released two separate findings Thursday involving Illinois Democrats implicated in separate infractions.

The panel found that Rep. Bobby L. Rush has improperly accepted free office space in a Chicago shopping center over the course of two decades, while Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez used his member’s representational allowance — his congressional office’s set budget — to pay former chief of staff, Doug Scofield, through his communications firm.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., left, speaks with Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., while waiting for President Barack Obama to deliver his final State of the Union address to a Joint Session of Congress in Washington on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Rep. Bobby Rush will fork over 15 percent of his congressional salary each month to repay more than $1 million he owes on a delinquent loan for a now-closed church he founded in Chicago.

Rush makes $174,000 a year through his salary in the House of Representatives, where he has served for more than 25 years representing Chicago’s South Side.

Instead, at least two of those absentees plan to take part in a separate event in Washington, the “State of OUR Union,” put on by leading women activists to “offer an alternative view and vision for the country” from Trump’s.

Updated Jan. 30 2:10 p.m. | Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen on Tuesday was the 12th Democratic member of Congress to announce that he would boycott President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

“I’ve spent 38 years in elected public office, helping make government work and speaking out against corruption because I believe, as President John F. Kennedy believed, that politics is an honorable profession,” Cohen said in a statement. “The current President is the antithesis of that sensibility: a man who appears determined to tear government down, harm the most vulnerable, benefit the rich and destroy foundational institutions such as the Department of Justice and the FBI.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, enlisted McDonald’s in his voter registration efforts when he was Ohio’s secretary of state. He is arguing that the high court should reject the state’s efforts to purge voters from the registration rolls. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The Supreme Court hears oral arguments Wednesday about Ohio’s effort to remove voters from its registration rolls, and some members of Congress have told the justices that the Buckeye State’s process violates federal laws meant to protect voters.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus filed separate briefs in the case siding with groups that challenged Ohio’s law. The state’s “supplemental process” uses a list of people who haven’t voted in recent elections to trigger steps that could remove them from the voter rolls.